This Saturday at 6pm ET Hall of Fire will be chatting about the 2009 Middle-earth fan-film The Hunt for Gollum.
Directed by Chris Bouchard, The Hunt for Gollum is based on the appendices of The Lord of the Rings and tells the story of Aragorn son of Arathorn, and his pursuit of the creature Gollum at the behest of Gandalf the Grey.
It debuted at the Sci-Fi-London film festival and won The People’s Choice Award at the Tri-City Independent/Fan Film Festival and picked up the Best Live Action award at Balticon Film Festival 2009. It has been watched more than 12 and a half million on Youtube alone.
But what did you think? Is it a worthy addition to the films of Middle-earth? Does it effectively portray the story of Aragorn and his long hunt for the Gollum? What did you think of how it adapts and uses Tolkien’s source material? And, as a film that was made post-Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, what influence can we see?
Because we’ll be actively discussing the film, rather than simply watching it, I’d definitely encourage you to watch the it beforehand. Which, luckily, is really easy — just watch below and then join our chat at 6pm ET today.
Edit to add: there is one battle sequence of about 2 mins in length about 2/3rds way through that is a little gory. Viewer discretion is advised.
Upcoming chat topics:
Saturday January 16: Aragorn as Thorongil
Saturday January 23: Finarfin son of Finwe
Time zone conversions
Not sure what time the chat will be where you are? Check this little conversion table out for some help. Alternatively, check our handy Event Announcer over on Time and Date for the correct time in your area.
America:
6.00pm EST (New York)
5.00pm CST (Chicago)
4.00pm MST (Denver)
3.00pm PST (Los Angeles)
Europe:
11.00pm BST (London)
Midnight CST (Paris)
1am EEST (Helsinki)
Asia-Pacific
8.00am AEST (Sunday) Brisbane
9.00am AEDT (Sunday) Sydney, Melbourne
11.00am NZDT (Sunday) Wellington
How long do your topic chats go for?
Our chats usually last about an hour, and are very newbie friendly. Simply drop in and join the conversation! However, our main room, #theonering.net is open 24 hours a day. We don’t always talk Tolkien there, but if you have a burning question, you’ll usually find one or two of “the regulars” up for a chat!
Where — connection details
Chat happens on #thehalloffire on irc.theonering.net — the TORn IRC server. It is based on internet relay chat technology (that means it’s hella old skool). It’s a text-only, moderated chat room full of eccentric Tolkien fans. We’re open 24/7 (although some times are busier and more active than others).
There are many ways to connect to the chat server. However, the easiest is generally to use a browser-based client. We usually direct folks to Mibbit:
* TORn Mibbit Widget
* Mibbit direct (as opposed to the widget above, this allows you to see others joining and leaving)
If you’re more oldschool or technically adept, you can install one of the scores of standalone chat clients that available for desktop and mobile devices. Just plug in our server details (see bottom) into the client and connect.
* Xchat: http://xchat.org/ (Windoze PC and Linux. Free)
* mIRC: http://www.mirc.com/ (Windoze PC. 30-day trial)
* AndChat: http://www.andchat.net/ (Android app for mobile. Free)
* Colloquy: http://colloquy.info/ (Mac OS and Apple mobile devices. Free)
Our server details:
IRC server name: irc.theonering.net
Channel/room name: #theonering.net
Port: 6667 (6697 for SSL connections)
